Pneumatic dust-handling system.



w. w. womLEY.y PEUMAIC DUST HANDLBNG SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3, 191 l.

WHITFOR'D W. WOODLEY, OF ELIZABETH CITY, NORTH CAROLINA.

PNEUMATIC DUST-HANDLING SYSTEM.

Continuation in part of application Serial No. 621,235, led April 15, 1911.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 23, 191.6,

This application led Tune 3,

1911. Serial No. 631,086.

To ZZ-107mm e'z may concern lie it known that I, Wiirrrouo lV. Woon- Lnr. a citizen of the llnitcd States, residing at Elizabeth City, in the county of Pasquetank and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pneumatic Dust-Handling Systems, or' which the following is a speciiication.

My invention relates to `pneumatic dusthandling systems, and particularly to longblow systems for handling and delivering large Volumes of miscellaneous material. A In my co-pending application Serial No. 621,235, tiled April 15, 1911, I have disclosed an improved method of pneumatically handling miscellaneous material, c'. C., materials in which the particles are widely variant in those relations of surface to mass which affect the action ot' the particles under the influence of a conveying air current; and my present invention contemplates the provision ot' advantageous structures in a. system suitable for the practice of the method disclosed in said companion application.

Inthe drawings, wherein I have illustrated an embodiment of my invention, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a complete system; Fig. 2 is a plan view of a charging device; and Fig. V is a side elevation of the charger with its upper portion broken away on line 3-3 of Fig. 2. In the drawings, 5 indicates a centrifugal dust collector of well known type, constituting in the system a source of materials supply suitable for constant delivery of material. The dust outlet of the collector 5 is connected to a valve casing G, provided with two outlets 7 and 8, and equipped with a valve G by which the discharge of the collector may be directed through to either outlet. The outlet 7 may be arranged to deliver to a local receptacle or may be eliminated, and the outlet 8 is arranged to deliver to a feed pipe 8', for delivery of material into the blow piping system.

9 indicates in general a charger for receiving relatively compact charges of miscellaneous material from the pipe 8', and delivering such material in charges at timed intervals into a blow pipe 10, which, is of small size, proportioned only to the vblume of material to be handled, rather than to length of the pipe.

1l indicates a positive blower, typical of any suitable constant-volume variable-pressure'air current generator, arranged to torce air into the receiving end 10 of the blow pipe for delivery through. the charger into the long discharge run 10".

12 indicates a terminal dust collector of well known construction, which in many instances is employed to facilitate proper discharge of the material out of the conveyor system, but generically said terminal dlist collector 12 may be regarded as merely an enlarged chamber for reducing the materials velocity and allowing' the escape oi the air, for in many systems the terminal dust eollector may be omitted, and the piping arranged to discharge merely into an onlarged chamber wherein the material may settle and from which the air may escape. When a terminal dust collector 19v is einployed, it is orn small size, for, as hereafter shpwn, it handles 'only a small volume of air and has the material delivered thereto in advantageous fashion.

Each of the principal structures shown, except the charger 9, is oi' construction well known upon the market and needs no speciiic description. Of course, the specific construction ot the charger may be varied, but for the handling of miscellaneous i" rial such as that from a wood working plant or other mill, its structure should be such that it may receive and deliver materials widely variant in character without clogging and without substantial air leakage.

In the specific charger construction shown, 15 is a frame supporting a base plate 1S` through which the discharge end 10 of the blow pipe opens, said plate 16 being opposed by an upper head 17 through which the pipes S and 10 open, preferably at diametrically opposite point-s. Between these plates is arranged the rotatable drum, gen-- erally indicated at 2O` preferably consisting; of lower and upper heads 21 and 22, and a series of tubes 23, of any suitable number, each opening through both of the heads :ill and Q2, and preferably so arranged that when one tube 23 registers with pipe 8', another rcgisters with pipes 10-10 of the blow pipe 10, as illustrated in Fig. 3. Ther drum so constructed is carried in rotation by a central shaft Q-l, for which suitable bearings are provided as at 25, `The contaotingl plane surfaces of the heads and I latas of the drinn and frame are preferably kept well oiled and substantially in air-tight contact. To this end, cups are suitably located near the periphery and near the center of said parts, and the plates il@ and 1T are maintained under pressure toward their re spective drum heads as by the provision of tension rods 2'?, at suitable peripheral in tervals, exteiridingthrough lugs 28 on the plates i6 and 17, said rods beingsr surrounded by tension springs Q9 bearing between said lugs and tension-adjusting stop nuts 30, 'upon the rods,

Any suitable driving nieans for the shaft 2i ni y be provided herein typili-ed by the ig 3l., shatBQ, and pulley 33, and wliil a constant or steady, rather slow, ro

tary inotion of the :hait 32 gives good practical results, l preler that the power appliance for rotating pulley be .arranged in any well known, fashion to a relatively long; dwell when a charger. tube is in register wit ne pipes, and a relatively quick Inovenient of the druni to bring successivecharger tubes into such ren'ster with the pipes.

lt will be observed that the charger constrrction is such that there is little possibility 1Sor air leakage through the joints between charger tube and the blow piping1 sections itleiid 10 'for the possible lines oi' air leakage are niiniinizedin extent, and the teiisional connection of the end plates, while permitting easggrA rotation of the drinn and automatic compensation 'for irregularities in. the coaftingg surfaces, nevertheless eins the surfaces always in etlicient Contact, liiitlier, it will be noted that the possibility of; clogging the charger is inindq and the d vice U' such difficult materials as wood use 'ier the reason., among others, that i ii tube as it nieves out oi' register with feed pipe 8 exerts a sl'iearinp; effect as between the rear edge oi' the tube orifice (with reference to the direction of rotation) and the front edge of the feed. pipe orifiile.

The salient oporrwion oit the charger is automatically to deli er into the blow piping relatively concentrated charges of iniscellaneous material at substantially regular iii tervals, and the object et so delivering the miscellaneous .inzit/arial in charges into the blow pipe i 'appreciable in' y rn/'als bechai' istie create initi: Ay iii-the iarge pipe spaces coinijiaratively Aiiree terizil oli a space following each eli;

g an

or fric* precetti:

into bici: the slower travelionally rotar( .d particles of gradually bceomcapacitated for o such space providy main mass oit the r t nd' 4'l .retin ing tie @ai nier/ica or piling up and forming-resistance areas against the progress of the material through the long discharge pipe.

While my system is widely adaptable to diiierent fields of operation, its advantages may well be illustrated by reference to its use in handling the dust products of woodworking plants, wherein the material to be handled varies from blocks and splinters to saw dust and powder. By the use ol' my s stein I find it to be ossible, in actuai- Y a P practice, greatly to reduce the initial cost, and also the continuing power expenditure for handling large volumes of such iniscelf laneous materials over long` blows, and at the saine time to secure a certainty of4 operation and absence of stoppages which heretofore has beeniinpossible in systems et the character heretofore commonly used.

In the operation of the system, the air current generator of a constant volume type, working uponv a small discharge pipe, will give the requisite air velocity with a rela tively small expenditure of power., The

' charger, introducing material at intervals from the source of supply into the blow piping in relatively Concentrated masses,V

facilitates the handling of the material over long blows, say upward of 500 feet, in a fashion to maintain the entire material contents of the piping traveling at high velocity and in condition for. discharge in a rela.- tively concentrated Ut'` course, seine particles of each charge by reason of frictional resistance of peculiarities of individual character, tend to travel more slowly than other particles differently characterized, so that from the time-oi introduction of the charges into the piping they tend gradually to' spread out so that ultimately they meet each other in a substantially evenly traveling stream after a large part of the distance from the intake point to the discharge point has-heen traversed,y and without having the velocity of the traveling. mass as a whole materially reduced. Along toward the end of the discharge pipe l0, where the air pressure is of course reduced, there is a tendency ot' the material ontlie surface of the traveling mass to run ahead of the slower traveling particles, but these incipient accumulations promptly cause additional resistance in the discharge pipe which the positive blower instantly meets by increased pressure engendered by the con-4 tinuing introduction of constant. volumes of air, so that the upper particles in travel cannot clog the pipe in the presence oi this almost even layer, and with, as a whole,

lll-5 autoinatically augmenting pressure, but the.

' close to' uniform velocity to the ultimate point of discharge. All ofthe factors of the smaller volume of air, delivery of material in concentrated mass into the piping, uniformity of travel, and automatic augmentation of pressure in the piping whenever the massing tendency occurs, contribute to the effect of tending to keep the 'lighter and heavier materials particles from separating .or stratifying, and I find that at the delivery end of theloiig discharge pipe, the heavier and lighter particles are so intermingled and so uniformly delivered that there is comparatively little tendency of the lighter dust particles to scatter, they being carried in mass by the heavier particles, so that there is much less tendency for the `dust. to escape into atmosphere at the discharge end of the system than is evidenced in the old systems. In practice, I find that the discharge at the delivery end is so uniform in many instances` that no terminal dust collector need be used, but where a terminal dust collector is employed as indicated in the drawings, it may be made very small on account of the relatively small volume of air handled, and the delivery of the materials in relatively concentrated form.

While I have herein described in considerable detail a specific embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that I do not desire to be limited thereto, as many changes may be made in the system for the practice of my invention within the spirit of my invention and within tlie scope of the appended claims.

lViiat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. In a system for handling heterogeneous materials, a charger comprising a movable series of chambers each having an opening for reception of materials or of a materials-discharging air-blast and an opening for discharge of materials and air, a source of materials supply, a pipe leading from said source of supply to a point for register with the first said opening of each ofthe chambers in the movement thereof past said point, a constant-volume variable-pressure air blower, a short pipe leading from the blower to another point for register With said first said opening of each of the chambers subsequent tothe passage thereof past the point for) registry with the pipe from `the source of supply, a receptacle remote rom the charger to receive materials, and a long' pipe leading to said receptacle from a point for register with the remaining open ing of that chamber whose first said opening is in register with the short pipe which leads to said constant-volume variable pressure air blower.

2. In a system for handling heterogeneous materials, the combination of a charger comprising upper and lower plates, the latter having 'a perforation alining with one of two perforations in the other plate, and a series of open-ended periplierally closed chambers rotatable between said plates to successive points with one chamber registering witli the alning openings and another chamber registering with the remain ing opening2 a pipe leading upwardly from said remaining opening to a source of materials supply, a short pipe leading from the upper of the two alining openings, a constant-volume variable-pressure aircurrent generator connected at the end of said short pipe, a long pipe leading from the lower of said two alining openings, a dust-receiving chamber at the end of said long pipe, and means to move said series of open-ended cylindrical chambers to said successive positions to effect filling of one chamber and forcible air-impelled discharge of a previously filled chamber in regular automatic succession.

3. In a system for handling miscellaneoussure air blower adjacent to the source of ma' terials supply; a long-blow small-diameter pipe proportioned in diameter to the 'volume' of material ,to be handled connecting the re-v ceiving receptacle and the air blower;` and a charger, adjacent to the sourcefof material supply and blower, coperatingwith both thereof, an'd comprising a seriesof chamber; i

arranged' successively to be a structures,

brought into communication each, first, with the source of material supplyl while closed to the blow piping and, thereafter into the: line of communication betweenv the lblower and the blow-piping; and means for sofmcving said chamber structures.

In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

Wiirrroanw. wooniinv. 

